New beardie owner looking for feedback

First off thank you so much for this website!!! I am a newbie to owning a beardie and I’ve spent countless hours on the blogs reading and it’s helped me immensely!

I bought Fred for my 12 year old son a month ago and fell instantly in love with this little guy. Well at least I think he’s a male. He has been an awesome eater from the time we brought him home and very easy to handle. We feed crickets, horn worms (not everyday staple) and dubia’s. Offer him salad of which I switch up to keep it interesting but he never touches it. Have only given him a handful of baths because we haven’t had him long but recently bathed daily because he went through a major shred. He scared me to death because last thurs he just quit eating and didn’t eat until yesterday. He looked so thin!! I had an appt to take him to the vet this morning but yesterday noticed his shed and figured this had to be the cause. Low and behold he ate 15 crickets last night and today ate so much! Pooping has always been good.

So I’ve been struggling with getting the temps/humidity right. So I have a 100basking bulb and a reptisun 10.0 coil on the left hand side. A 24 hood with T5 10.0 reptisun tube. And on the right I have a 75basking bulb. This setup has kept the humidity down to 40%. Before it was far too high at 60% even with taking water bowl out. So the cool side is typically 85-90 and the basking side 96-98 on average (was more like 105 prior to Sunday but vet told me that was too warm). When I put a 100 watt there it gets so hot. Like almost 115 at one point. Any thoughts on how to better regulate my setup so he’s comfy? He doesn’t seem upset or anything and is quite content. I turn it all off at 7 and he’s out and sleeps until 6 when they come back on.

I would love suggestions on how to improve to keep him healthy. I ordered a temp gun today to get better readings as well.

Thanks!!

Chilling with a full tummy

How are you monitoring your temperatures? Digital temperature gauge with a probe, temp gun, stick on gauge?

Because if its not with a temp gun or digital temperature gauge with a probe then the temps are wrong as stick on gauges don't tell the correct temperatures.

Also 60% if fine, a bit high but overall fine. Beardies can handle a wide range of humidity percentages... I just wouldn't get it over 60% or below 20%.

You should have three temperature zones, a cool side, a warm side and basking spot(s).
Basking spot should be about 100-110. No lower and no higher.
(If you go higher you must offer another basking spot thats lower than 110 so the beardie can pick and choose)
Warm side 88-95.
(This is the areas around the direct basking spot(s)
Cool side 70-85.
Night time temp no lower than 65 and no higher than 85.
If it goes lower than 65 then you can use a ceramic heat emitter (CHE). Any colored bulbs can not be used during the day or at night as beardies see colors just like we do, but even more than we do.

So get your temperatures within those ranges once you get a correct way of monitoring temps.


How old is your bearded dragon? 15 crickets total is a fairly small amount..

This is a small feeding guide for you, just to help a bit.
I also have a small care sheet for bearded dragons that may be of some help as well.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18PfjxbgD95KLcfRCqGAVz-ViuMPuP4AvgGBSZzPKRgc/edit?usp=sharing
All life stages eat 10-20 bugs a feeding.
1-4 months 3x a day.
4-12 months 2x a day.
12-20 months once a day.
20+ months twice a week at the least, every other day at the most.

Staple feeders - Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, silkworms, black soldier fly larvae, dubia roaches, turkish roaches, possibly earthworms.

Treat feeders - Waxworms, hornworms, superworms, mealworms, butterworms.
Wax worms - once a week, 4-5 max.
Hornworms - every other day to every two days, 4-6 max.
Mealworms - every other day to every two days, 5-10 max. Only for beardies above 6 months.
Superworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max. Only for beardies above 12 months.
Butterworms - once or twice a week, 3-4 max.

Daily greens- Turnip/collard/mustard greens, endive, and kale if added to a mixture of the other staple greens mentioned.
Fruit once or twice a week - Banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, red raspberries.
For more food items -
http://www.thebeardeddragon.org/bearded
http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html


You want two supplements at the very least, a calcium and a multivitamin.

Generally beardies below two years need calcium 5x a week and multivitamins 2x a week.

However beardies above two years or at two years of age need calcium only 2-4x a week with
multivitamins 1-2x a week.
This depends on how your adult beardie is with diet, health, just laid eggs, is laying eggs, etc.

13 hours of light is fairly good but I'd go up to 14 hours at minimum instead.
Only time you really ever go to anything below 14 hours of light a day for a bearded dragon is when your breeding them and you decide to burmate them for possibly better success in breeding.


Also to sex him, arch the tail up so you can slightly see the vent a bit.
Above the vent there should be bumps. Two bumps male, one bump female.


EDIT- Okay seeing the pictures now.. you may not be getting accurate temperatures because your basically monitoring the air temp not the basking temp.. try and see if you can find a place on that log to put it. If not then get a temp gun so you can accurately monitor it.

Thanks! Sorry I should have mentioned that I’m dusting with calcium and multi as suggested on your reply. Yes 15 crickets was not much for him at all but was progress from the 3 days prior. Today he ate 20 crickets, 10 Phoenix worms, 10 small dubia’s, 1 hornworm and looks like he actually ate some of his greens. I’m not sure how old he is because he’s from petsmart...knowing what I know now I should have gotten him from a breader but didn’t know. Suggestions on the basking spot? Go back to the 100 bulb and let it get to 110? Vet told me on sat that was too high which is why I swapped it out.
Monitoring temps with digital Therm with probe but temp gun is ordered.

Ok thanks I’ll try that as well as adjust the timer to allow for 14 hours of light/UVB. The temp gun will arrive on Wed so that will help. In the meantime tomorrow morning I’ll test it with the probe. He’s snoozing now so don’t want to disturb him. So appreciate your help.

Unless your vet was a actual certified reptile vet then I wouldn't entirely trust them... exotic vets or vets that are just willing to see reptiles/other animals are pretty much vets that look online for the answer as they have no clue what it is themselves.

My last vet, an exotics vet, gave me a simple little care sheet for my BTS... didnt ask me any questions about my tank setup and didnt even offer to do an X-Ray on her broken/ruptured rib cage. Just gave me the care sheet and parasite meds and sent me on my way.
When I got my tegu I went there for parasites, thats pretty much all I go to that vet for now as he has the least expensive fecal testing and med costs. And they wrote her down as an Iguana... they also wrote down my BTS as a turtle... but in their defense she is named Turtle. The tegu being mistaken as an iguana by vets however is terrifying.

However when I went to the vet I'm going to now who is a reptile vet was very knowledgeable about reptiles, and asked all the right questions to find out what was wrong. He even owned some himself until he got married and apparently his tegu started chasing his kids around.

Anyway it's good you got the temp gun ordered.
110 Is fine, but shouldn't go over that... I also noticed you have two basking spots? How high does the hammock basking area get to using that temperature gauge?

Not really intending to have a 2nd basking area I just put the other lamp there to help warm that area up and bring the humidity level down (was 75 and 60% humidity without anything there). Maybe I need to go back to just having the 100watt on the right hand side and take the uvb bulb out of the dual. The single mount I have maxes out at 60. I just worry about it getting too hot but sounds like I really do need to move things around so he can get more like 100-110 in his basking spot.